


In the Shade of the Pine Tree

by princecaviar



Series: No One is Fine (And That's Okay) [1]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, Panic Attacks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-22
Updated: 2019-07-22
Packaged: 2020-07-11 15:56:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19930663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/princecaviar/pseuds/princecaviar
Summary: Sometimes Dipper wakes up in the middle of the night with shaking hands and a pounding heart, horrible laughter still ringing in his ears.Sometimes Mabel jolts awake with a strangled scream that she cuts off halfway through so she doesn't wake her parents.





	In the Shade of the Pine Tree

Sometimes Dipper wakes up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, his hands shaking and his chest heaving, trying not to scream and wake his parents up. Most of the time he curls up and wraps himself up in his blanket, (and god he’s so grateful he convinced his parents to get him a weighted blanket) the tight pressure enough to lull him back to sleep.

Other times (The times he knows he’s having a panic attack because it’s been five minutes and his hands are still shaky and he’s shivering so hard he feels like he’s going to throw up) he stumbles his way out in the hall and into Mabel’s room. She’s always awake and waiting for him. (He never asks how she knows- she can feel his nightmares like he can feel her’s.) He crawls into bed next to her and lets her talk about anything she can think of, focusing on her voice while trying desperately to ignore the laugh still echoing in his ears.

Sometimes Mable wakes up with a short scream that she cuts off with a hand clamped to her mouth and sits motionless, listening to see if she woke her parents up. After what feels like forever (but is never more than five minutes) she slips out of her room to Dipper’s and curls up next to him, her twin’s steady breathing being more than enough to let her slip back into sleep.

A few times they’ve had nightmares at the same time. On those nights they climb up onto the roof of their house (Dipper’s window is perfect to climb out of) and count as many stars and trees as they can, Dipper’s blanket wrapped around them. (There’s never enough stars. There were almost too many in Gravity Falls, a tiny town that shuts down after 10 pm. Piedmont itself isn’t huge but it’s surrounded by a city. One time they could only find three stars. Their record is twenty. There are more trees than stars, but there’s still not enough of those either.)

They breathe in the smog and count the days until summer break. The days until they can leave California and head north. (The last day of school this year is such a relief they almost cry. They’d both had horrible nightmares and barely made it through the day.) They fall asleep on the bus and don’t wake up until they’re three miles from town. Everyone is waiting for them at the bus stop and this time they do cry.

They both have nightmares again that night, but instead of climbing on the roof they slip down into the living room and talk quietly. Grunkle Ford joins them at around 3 AM. (He keeps dreaming that he’s back in the portal) The three of them talk until the sun has risen and it’s time for breakfast. (Grunkle Stan doesn’t even blink when he finds the three of them already awake and in the kitchen, just goes on making his coffee.)

The nightmares are rare now that they’re back, the shadows of the trees that they can just barely make out through their window chasing away the flashes of yellow and horrible laughter. (One time after a particularly bad nightmare Dipper climbed up on the roof with shaking hands and found Grunkle Stan already sitting there. Neither of them spoke, but it was comfortable all the same.)

A month into summer break they both know that they can’t leave. Conversations are had, as well as some very careful explanations. (They can never tell their parents what happened last summer but they can pretend like the nightmares showed up the day they got home. They can pretend that the nightmares aren’t about their friends and family being turned to stone. They can pretend.) Their parents are concerned, but when Dipper and Mable let on just how bad it was getting, they relent. They’re signed up for Gravity Falls High and their parents will come visit every few months.

It’s still not perfect. Dipper still has panic attacks every now and then, and every once in awhile Mable has to reassure herself that Dipper’s still breathing. Stan still has to reassure himself that he remembers everything. Ford still struggles to accept that he doesn’t have to be paranoid anymore. But it’s as close to perfect as their little patchwork family is going to get, and that’s okay with them.


End file.
